Nominations for the Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards 2017 are open, and this year three new award categories have been added. Nominations are closing soon.
These awards remain the only awards in the industry that are truly independent, with no charge to funds to enter and no financial arrangement with a research house. The awards selection and judging process remains committed to identifying and rewarding examples of industry excellence across the superannuation sector.
The judging committee has changed from last year. Conexus Financial’s director of institutional content Amanda White, and director of retail content Simon Hoyle will be joint-chairs of the judging committee.
“The Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards are designed to recognise funds that ultimately produce the best outcomes for members,” Hoyle says. “While it’s easy to think that’s largely a story about investment returns, a member’s experience is shaped over the course of a lifetime by many aspects of a fund’s structure
and operations.
“Focusing on past performance creates an interesting historical picture, and is evidence of whether a fund’s investment process does what it says it will, but to be truly useful, an assessment needs to include some forward-looking elements.
“And while it’s impossible to be too definitive when talking about the future, the way a fund is structured to support members with information about how it invests money, its investment and insurance options, and how it provides guidance on making the best decisions, all combine to shape a member’s eventual outcome. The importance of a range of non-investment issues – like access to financial advice and the quality of member services – cannot be ignored.”
The judging committee now includes consumer advocate and chief executive officer of Choice, Alan Kirkland; chief executive officer of the Financial Services Council, Sally Loane; Rice Warner chief executive officer Michael Rice; and former minister for superannuation and financial services Bernie Ripoll. Also participating is Joanna Davison, chief executive officer of the Fund Executives Association Ltd.
“For the awards, Rice Warner will be combining the information provided by the funds with our extensive superannuation product database,” Rice says.
“This database forms the backbone of our research and is updated and checked monthly with actuarial sign-off for quality assurance.
“Rice Warner scores investments using stochastic projections of member retirement outcomes, with assumptions underpinned by our annual investment survey of leading investment managers and asset consultants. Our group insurance experts review each fund’s insurance value. All results are peer reviewed by members of the consulting team.”
In order to reinforce the integrity of the selection process, and to bring an international perspective to the proceedings, chief executive officer of the NZ Super Fund, Adrian Orr, has joined the judging panel.
To highlight its independence, the deputy chairman from APRA, Helen Rowell, has been engaged as a special adviser, and to run the rule of the regulator over the applications.
This year, three new categories have been added to the awards – best technology offering, best advice offering, and best insurance offering – reflecting the growth and importance of a wider range of sectors within in the industry.
Following the failure of any fund to secure consensus among the judging panel for the award for innovation, this year the award has been broadened to cover innovation and transformation, which aims to showcase examples of where funds have been able to transition to a new way of working with and for members.
Every APRA regulated fund with a MySuper product will receive a pre-populated entry form delivered via email. If your fund has not yet received a nomination form, one can be requested from the awards website.
